Francis Johnson

Who was Francis Johnson?

Francis Johnson was a linguist who taught Sanskrit, Telugu and Bengali at the East India Company College between 1824 and 1855. He compiled a comprehensive Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary, which he published in 1852.

As a young man he travelled to Rome and Athens with Charles Lock Eastlake and Charles Barry and others, returning to England in 1824.

A nonconformist, he funded the construction in 1829 of a Congregationalist chapel at Hertford Heath, and its subsequent operation.

He also published

Johnson, Francis. Hitopadesa. The Sanskrit Text of the First Book, or Mitra-Labha; with a Grammatical Analysis, Alphabetically Arranged. Prepared for the Use of the East-India College, by Francis Johnson, Professor. London: James Madden and Co. Successors to Parbury and Co., 8 Leadenhall Street, 1840.